A ‘FREE’ WORLD: Peter Vecsey says he is convinced the Knicks are not only on Carmelo Anthony’s list of potential teams to sign with as a free agent, he believes they might be near the top. Photo: Getty Images

PHOENIX — Based on several one-on-one conversations with Carmelo Anthony over the last few days, I alternated between being positive the Knicks were not on his free agent list to being convinced they are.

Maybe even at the top.

“I’m just like LeBron,” Anthony emphasized in the Nuggets’ locker room following Saturday’s practice. “It’s all about winning. That’s all I care about. I want the chance to compete at the championship level. All the other stuff is irrelevant.”

In my scrawny mind, that quote instantaneously eliminated the Knicks from contention for his revered services. The last five times I snuck a quick peek at their lack of knack, they were all about losing coyote ugly and not built to win now, the year after now or seemingly ever.

Others may have the time and tolerance to join a recurrent reconstruction project but count out Anthony, who had 20 points and 22 rebounds in the Nuggets’ 100-94 loss to the Suns last night. He’s 26 and already troubled by his failure to frequent a single Finals.

I’m admittedly slow on the uptake, but Anthony gave me the impression he’s singularly interested in playing for a team in the habit of inhabiting first place and bedding championships — you know, like the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs.

So, I was not all that surprised when Anthony revealed to The Post he has not expunged any of those three teams from his bottomless pit of gaping options.

However, I must confess to being a bit floored when Brooklyn’s gift to Baltimore (the borough’s 18-year-negotiation for Skip Wise as compensation is rumored on The Corners to be almost resolved) again divulged to The Post he has not ruled out his home team as a possible landing zone.

Don’t reach for your spectacles, you got that right; the Knicks remain a viable option. I repeat, a viable option.

Ask me how Anthony defends those colliding concepts after I speak with him a fourth time in private.

For the moment all I can do is pretend to be able to read his rationalization, but must start with the Nets, if for no other reason than to give them some pub and then quickly obliterate their once lofty hopes.

At the outset of this Melodrama, a week or so before training camp when reports inaccurately claimed, as I’ve come to discover, he was on the verge of making Mikhail Prokhorov an even larger luminary than he is, the Nets, at the very least, appeared to be the frontrunners.

Now they’re also-rans, I’m informed. In a nutshell, the fact they’re two seasons away from moving to Brooklyn from New Jersey places them in the loser bin. You comprehended what Anthony said, his plan is to associate strictly with a winning outfit. All options no longer are open, it appears.

On the flip side, the Knicks play foul basketball at a sacred site that’s merely a short subway ride from where the vast majority of Anthony’s family, including his two older brothers, still lives in Red Hook, Fort Green and adjoining neighborhoods.

I can’t tell you how much Melo admires James Dolan’s willingness to great lengths to avoid contaminating Madison Square Garden with a loss, because we never discussed the cancellation of the Orlando game due an asbestos scare.

According to column contributor Michael Catarevas, after the success of Asbestos Night vs. the Magic, the Knicks have designated Dec. 15 vs. Boston as Mold Night and Dec. 17 as Lead Night.

I know what you’re wondering: Where does Melo stand with the Nuggets who actually had won one more game than the four it’d lost going into last night’s catch-and-shoot matchup with the Suns?

Anthony and I are in complete agreement on this: Should he decline to sign the long-ago offered maximum extension (three years, $64.57 million) by the Feb. 25 trade deadline, the management team of Josh Kroenke and general manager Masai Ujiri will deal their franchise player rather than risk losing him on the free agent market come summer without getting back anyone of consequence.

Although their circumstances were solely dissimilar (championship aspirations vs. playoff pretender), that’s what happened to the Cavaliers and Raptors, who salvaged what unfulfilling crumbs they could — trade exceptions and draft picks — from the Heat in sign-and-sighs for LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

Kroenke and Ujiri, the Raptors assistant GM last season when Bosh demurred to state his murky intentions until after the season, will not allow the Nuggets to get caught in the same bind.

Meanwhile, when fully healthy, the Nuggets genuinely exhibit numerous championship contending components. Two seasons ago, they had the Lakers wounded in the Western Conference finals, but couldn’t finish the hunt, losing in six scarred games.

Last season, Ty Lawson and Aaron Affalo, two quality pieces, were added to the mix. In late February, the Nuggets were in second place in the West when George Karl was diagnosed with throat cancer. Without his cunning coaching and dominating personality that commands respect, it became every oddball for himself. Then Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen got hurt, played that way and ultimately needed offseason surgeries they’re still rehabilitating from.

Welcome to Dysfunction Junction: Substitute teacher Adrian Dantley didn’t have a chance in this crazed classroom and the Jazz took the Nuggets out of their misery in the first round.

If only the madness were confined to the court. The front office was even more unruly. Bret Bearup, Mark Warkentien and Rex Chapman were locked in a coldblooded power free-for-all, resulting in little good getting done.

Warkentien and Chapman weren’t rehired. Bearup was last to be severed last week, making it unmistakable the new two-man regime was in sole control, determined to disinfect the surroundings and gain Melo’s trust.

The lines of communication already had been connected almost immediately after the exaggerated trade report surfaced. Ever since the “news” hit the doorstep, Kroenke and Ujiri have sought out Anthony for opinions on team matters, just as he’s gone to them with suggestions.

Both sides now know exactly what must be done. He wants to see the team improved within the next three months, or shown a plausible plan to get better this summer. He promises not to leave his team hanging.

“I’m not Chris Bosh,” Anthony declared. “We’re not the same person. What I do will be straight up. Management knows that.”

Considering Anthony’s tentative Nuggets future, management has an almost impossible assignment. How do you get better when you’ve got to give up an asset to get one? How do you buy a wheel for a car that might soon be repossessed? How do you do balance business and justice when Martin and J.R. Smith are rising free agents and Chauncey Billups can be bought out of next season’s $14.2 million obligation for $3.75 million?

The key is not to make hasty decisions. The idea is to see how things play out in the standings over x-amount of games so fantasy can be separated from reality. The hope is to get Martin and Andersen back on the court. If Karl, who’s back holding players accountable, and the two brutes were at the top of their defensive game, would Anthony be tempted to leave?

Then again, maybe the number of cleanup hitters assembled by the Heat both incited and tricked him into forgetting how close these same Nuggets got to The Finals. None of that really matters at this point, of course. Coming up with an acceptable championship plan is management’s primary focus and Melo’s fixation. What happens should the progress he’s insisting on not occur by the trade deadline?

“That’s reality,” Melo said. “Whether I like it or not, or whether they like it not.”

Except for one minor detail, such a standoff decidedly favors Anthony — who can call all the shots simply by refusing to not commit past this season.